Art Class
by NatureG45
Summary: For many, art is a chance to escape, to explore a new part of themselves or to simply pass the time. But for Zeref it's a chance to discover something new (Modern AU Zervis)


**I don't normally do this but hey, my friend loves Zervis so this is a gift for her.**

" **I'm in art class and I just opened a cupboard to find a tiny person (you) squished inside and you just looked at and said "shh i'm hiding"**

Zeref was a man who was used to the unknown. Ever since he was a child he found that oddities were drawn to him, and sometimes he was even drawn to them.

Be it his research, the fictional worlds he would often bury himself; even the times he spent with Natsu could fall into this category (he just couldn't understand how his brother came up with some of the things he did).

Now given how often he was placed in strange situations it was only natural that the abnormal soon became normal for him. Things rarely shocked him anymore, Natsu joked that it made him strange and he had to agree. It seemed as though nothing could get through to him anymore.

Zeref dropped his brush into the dark water and eyed his work with satisfaction. A soft hum escaped his lips, ghosting paint stained fingers over the intricate shapes and streaks of colours that he had created.

It was a rare spur of the moment decision but now he was truly grateful for signing up for this art class.

His eyes ran over the picture once more and -without warning- his satisfaction disappeared just as quickly as it had came.

With a squint he realized that a section of his work (and quite a small section at that) didn't match up with the rest of it. It's colours were dull, sticking out like a sore thumb and the more he looked at it, the more it irritated him.

The artist he had grown to be over the past weeks wouldn't allow such an atrocity to go unfixed.

He grabbed his paintbrush and gave it a good shake to remove the droplets from its bristles. He readied his tool to dab it in the colour of his choice, when the first surprise struck.

He was out of paint.

He noted this with a frown Truly, it was strange. He was meticulous in his activities and always-without a doubt- made sure he had the exact amount of whatever he needed at the start of each class.

It seemed he was not quite so careful today.

With a sigh Zeref heaved himself off his stool, taking care not to disturb his fellow classmates and made the trek over to the supply cabinet.

It was there that he found his second surprise. And this one was definitely more shocking than the first.

When he opened it there were the usual paints and brushes, pencils and charcoal and extra canvasses too. But somehow wedged in the impossibly small space was a woman, with legs tucked close to her chest and was splattered with molding clay from head to toe.

Her eyes widened in fear when the cabinet opened but when they locked with his, she pressed a finger to her lips, " shh," She warned, "Don't tell anyone i'm in here. I'm hiding."

Zeref opened his mouth to respond but nothing came out. For the first in a long time he was at a loss for words. Wordlessly, he closed his mouth and the door to simply stand there in silence, contemplating what he had just witnessed.

Did he really just see a woman stuffed in with the art supplies?

It sounded as ridiculous as one of Natsu's schemes but it was true. And like many of his brother's ideas that he'd been roped into, had piqued his interest.

Zeref's curiosity was burning so, in an impulse made decision, he opened the door once more.

He encountered her wide eyes again and she quickly raised a brow, obviously questioning why this man was here again.

"Is there something in here you need?" She asked, as though her situation was completely normal.

"Well yes. But first I was hoping you would tell me, why exactly are you in here?"

"I'm hiding from someone." She stated. The woman wriggled to find a better position.

"That much I was able to figure out but what brought on this situation of yours?"

She ran her fingers through one of her long pigtails, catching occasionally on a dried clump of clay "Do you know Precht from the pottery class next door?"

Zeref nodded. He'd encountered the man a few times and found him to have a heart of gold despite his size and the scowl he chose to wear. But his heart of gold had a tendency to disappear when his work happened to be interrupted.

Shouts were often heard from the class over and crashes that suggested lethal damage to the offender. He was the closest thing to a legend among the group of classes.

"Well i'd finished my work early and was walking around looking at everyone else's work. But then I tripped and fell…right into Precht." She finished in a horrified whisper.

They both shared a shiver at the thought. "And naturally, that made him-"

" _Mad_." He could feel the nervous energy flowing off her as the strokes through her hair increased. "I pushed him right into the pot he was making and it practically _exploded_. He turned and looked at me and i saw any chances of reasoning with him disappear completely from his eyes."

"So you decided to run for it," he reasoned, "And the only place you thought to hide was this small and overpacked cabinet?"

"Of course!" she replied with an excited twinkle in her eye. "No one would ever think to look for someone in here!" Sadly, he couldn't argue with the logic in her ridiculous thought process.

The woman wriggled again and he just had to wonder how she slipped in there without anyone noticing.

"Are you comfortable?" He asked curiously. "If you're not you should move to another hiding place."

"No no, I'm fine. It's just that something-" she dislodged an arm that was squished between her and the cabinet wall and reached behind to pull up a few tubes of acrylic paint "- kept stabbing me in the back."

She dropped the tubes in her lap and leaned back, satisfied that her irritant was gone.

The paint. Right, that's why he was over here in the first place. He'd almost forgotten in the midst of all this.

" You could give those to me, they're actually what I need."

She happily palmed them off to him and he accepted with a grateful nod. "Thank you, Miss…"

"Mavis, you?"

"Zeref. And I'm sure that maybe Precht has calmed down a bit now. Maybe you should go check and see."

Mavis considered for a moment but declined with a shake of the head. "I think it's best if I stay in here a while longer, just to be safe."

"If you say so. Just don't stay too long, else another person finds you and raises an alarm."

Finally he closed the door on their conversation with the last of her he saw being a simple wave and a smile. Zeref received many strange looks from his classmates- his teacher too- as he went back to work.

Normally he was not this active and even then, he just spent a prolonged time at the cabinet which to them must've looked like he was staring at the supplies. He was bound to receive stranger looks than usual.

But as he continued to work, righting the wrong that he'd found, his eyes would constantly flash over to the cabinet between each brushstroke, checking to see if the woman he encountered had finally left her hiding place.

Zeref saw the door creak open not long after and out crawled Mavis, on all fours and unnoticed out the door to freedom.

He bit back a smile. Perhaps there were still a few oddities that he had yet to discover.


End file.
